what do you know about jazz music? if you’re like most people, probably not much. you might like some tunes and know a few names, but the majority of us do not own many jazz cd’s (if any) or spend much money going to jazz clubs to see live performances. that said, millions of people support the rock music industry by purchasing music downloads, cd’s or by going to concerts on a regular basis.

enter eric lewis (@eleww on twitter)…

eric is a jazz pianist who can rock mr brightside and clocks like no other. layer in some hard rocking bass guitar (luis trevino), drums (kevin cerovich) and a violinist who could make a metallica fan weep with joy (matt szemela) and you have jazz reinvented for a modern audience. there are songs in their repertoire that take you to beautiful, happy places, songs that make you want to stand up and dance, others that are just fun jams and then a few that take you to some deep, dark places that make you feel you are flirting with the devil himself.

i’m not equipped with the vocabulary to review jazz music, but let me attempt to convey the experience eric and his band creates.

i’m thinking i’m about to see a jazz performance. it starts off all funky and cool like you expect a jazz show might, but then, wait – what? is that a silversun pickups tune? the killers?? and that’s when you get this feeling of ‘hell yes – i do belong here!  i know this and i can get down to this’. but then, in that way that only jazz can do – the same tune changes, and goes in all these whacked out places you never expected. it gets soft and gentle then loud and strong and then the dissonance starts making you a bit tense and you can’t tap your foot to it anymore. and just when you’re thinking ‘oh my god, where the hell are we, what’s happening, it’s getting out of control!’ they bring it home in the grooviest way and you sink back in your chair with a feeling of relief and happiness and ahhh…what a trip. do it again! do it again! and they do.

i was fortunate enough to be invited to photograph eric’s show on saturday night at hr-57 in downtown dc and again at a private party sunday night and i’m still pumped by eric’s energy. both venues were a joy to photograph but the pictures don’t convey enough – so my god, please don’t leave this page until you listen to the video further down. and if you’re so inclined, here’s their fanpage.

18 May This entry was published on May 18, 2009 at 7:59 pm. It’s filed under good times and tagged dc, ELEW, eleww, Eric Lewis, ericlewis, hr-57, jazz, kevincerovich, luistrevino, mattszemela, music. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.